394: Chapter 394 A Thought Leads to Godhood and Demonic Power

"This snowy mountain is quite high."

As soon as Zhou Yan said this, he felt it was a bit inexplicable.

After all, how could there be snow if the altitude wasn't high?

"It seems that the strange experience of those three years still affects me."

"No wonder those who enter seclusion don't stay in seclusion forever. Even if they meditate intermittently, holding it in for decades or a hundred years, their minds would rust."

Seven Nascent Souls crushed for three years, and he himself, even in this wheelchair mode, was an infant for three years.

In a way, it was not much different from a single period of seclusion, and he indeed needed to digest it.

"This place looks out of place with the area below."

Zhou Yan didn't fly directly to the mountain peak. Instead, he came to the foot of the mountain and chose to walk up, to avoid rushing too fast and encountering any accidents.

Unexpectedly, the mountain looked like a lollipop wrapper from afar, but once on the mountain, he found that pine trees were dominant.

At a glance, if it weren't for the slope of the ground, he would have thought he had walked into a pine forest.

After walking for a while longer, the mountain path gradually leveled out.

An ice lake appeared before his eyes, still surrounded by pine trees. Other than that, it was utterly desolate.

Some broken ice floated on the lake, all looking quite thick.

"This strange terrain, if it were on Blue Star, would probably be another major physics problem."

Since he had climbed high, he naturally should look far.

Zhou Yan casually found a large rock and sat on it.

"The Secret Realm will affect Divine Sense, but covering it from a high place should greatly increase the range. Let me see what kind of place this is."

As soon as his Divine Sense spread out, he suddenly noticed an area behind him that could not be covered, appearing particularly abrupt in his Divine Sense.

Almost simultaneously, Zhou Yan retracted his Divine Sense, and a Golden Eyes of Delusion Breaking shot out.

It quickly locked onto the target in the lake—a small boat, with what seemed to be a glowing light bulb on it, though its origin was unclear.

No, that's a person!

The monk quietly observed the changes in Long Tianxing and the others when he suddenly felt something sweep over him. He turned his head in confusion towards the direction from which the sensation came.

"Huh?"

"Oh, holy crap!"

Their gazes met.

One was shocked to see someone who shouldn't have appeared.

The other was startled to see a face half-shrouded in light, and the other half capable of stopping a child's crying.

A single thought connects to the heavens; gods and devils fear nothing!

With such an astonishing appearance, who could be on that small boat!

Zhou Yan stared at the person on the boat, his eyes full of vigilance.

After all, this face, even in the meme world, would be top-tier, only a certain lord could suppress it, let alone seeing it in person now.

The monk looked at the person on the shore, his heart also full of confusion.

He had clearly passed the four Gate of Life trials, and by rights, he should have ascended from the lower section of the tree trunk to the middle section. How could he have directly reached the tree canopy?

Could it be that he really jumped out of the Gate of Life?

The two looked at each other, speechless for a moment, neither knowing how to speak.

"You..."

"Benefactor, you..."

...

"Benefactor, you speak first."

"You first."

...

Zhou Yan rubbed the back of his head, and the monk also rubbed his bald head, both a little embarrassed.

However, Zhou Yan had roughly guessed the other party's identity. He should be a native creature of the Secret Realm, just like the Tree Spirit.

And the fact that he could stay in this clearly not-simple place, with an independent model and a special entrance animation, meant he was likely one of the big bosses behind the Secret Realm.

He probably exploited some bug to accidentally enter this place, which seemed to be the administrator's room.

"Um... shouldn't I be here?"

Seeing Zhou Yan's embarrassed expression, the monk also felt a bit uncomfortable, as he hadn't had a normal conversation with anyone for a long time.

"From the current situation, that does seem to be the case."

"Then how do I go back?" Zhou Yan finally got to the point, fearing that the other party would say, "There's no logout button," which would truly be troublesome.

"By rights, the leaf that guided you should take you to the next stage, but you seem to have lost that leaf."

As soon as the monk spoke, Zhou Yan understood. So that leaf, besides being a ticket, also needed to be recycled?

At the time, fearing that the Tree Spirit would take advantage of him, he stuffed everything into his backpack.

No wonder he appeared here.

Just as Zhou Yan was about to take out the leaf to leave, a leaf floated before him.

He casually caught it.

Then he saw the monk wave his hand at him, understanding that the other party was seeing him off.

Looking at the leaf in his hand, he didn't take out the previous one, but instead took out all the items obtained in the Secret Realm and put them into his profound ring.

With a pull of purple light, Zhou Yan vanished from the spot.

After he left, the monk finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"It truly is an unexpected turn of events, to have so many interesting things happen in such a short time. This young man is indeed extraordinary; I wonder what he will gain in the end."

"But this really startled me."

"It seems I'll have to watch more carefully from now on, and not let such things happen again."

"Otherwise, if someone truly gets trapped in the Secret Realm and can't get out, that would be troublesome."

With that, the monk put his palms together, and the entire Secret Realm seemed to quietly undergo some changes.

Maze Exploration: High Grade.

Small Secret Realm Exploration: High Grade.

Four Gates Tour: High Grade.

Overall: High Grade.

Reward: One opportunity for Dragon Gate Enlightenment, three High Grade spiritual plants, two treasures from the Treasure Pavilion.

Looking at the large leaf in front of him and the evaluation on it, Zhou Yan didn't know how valuable it was.

The Sect didn't mention it before he entered, and it wasn't in the Demon Venerable's memories, but seeing that the score wasn't low, it should be pretty good, right?

"But it's fine if it's a bit less; I've picked enough bodhi fruit."

During the settlement, Zhou Yan unconsciously recalled what he had just seen.

"An old man in a straw cloak and hat, fishing alone in the cold river snow."

"That monk... he should be a monk, right? He's quite good at choosing Concepts."

After saying this, he chose to proceed to the next stage.

It was at this moment that a small cloth bag glowed and appeared before Zhou Yan, guiding him to the next stage.

"Didn't they say it was a leaf? How did it turn into a small cloth bag guiding me now?"

But what Zhou Yan didn't know was how much of a stir the poem he had just recited caused.

Above the ice lake, the monk, who had just adjusted the Secret Realm and added some restrictions, wanted to see if Zhou Yan had successfully entered the next stage. He happened to hear him recite that poem.

The monk's body instinctively trembled.

Ignoring everything else, he wanted to bring Zhou Yan back but found that the other party had already appeared somewhere in the city, which made him even more surprised.

"Is there such an identity in this stage?"

This sudden change made him hesitant to rashly bring Zhou Yan back, fearing that this rare turn of events would be interrupted.

It was also at this time that he remembered the bodhi tree had said she had seen this person, so he contacted her again to inquire about Zhou Yan.

The Bodhi Tree Spirit was already annoyed by the previous communication cutoff, but seeing the other party's unprecedented urgency, she didn't dare to ask too many questions.

She could only recount everything from their meeting to her punching the other party away, in detail.

When she wanted to ask what had happened, the communication was cut off again.

Being unilaterally hung up on again, the Bodhi Tree Spirit was both angry and annoyed, and could only continue to stomp her feet in frustration.

And at this moment, the monk on the ice lake could no longer suppress his excitement. He had completely lost his previous detached demeanor, only repeatedly chanting.

"An old man in a straw cloak and hat, fishing alone in the cold river snow."

"Bodhi originally has no tree, nor is the bright mirror a stand."

These two lines of poetry were nothing special.

It was normal for someone to recite them when moved by the scenery.

But the premise was that the original poems existed.

What if these two poems simply didn't exist?

It's like reciting "The Qin moon and Han pass remain" in another world. What if this world had no Qin or Han dynasties?

A straw cloak might still have a chance to appear, but the bodhi tree absolutely should not.

Because the name bodhi tree was something he had learned through special channels and named himself!

The one he personally planted should have originally been called the Enlightenment Tree.

The monk looked up, his mind returning to peace.

Only this time, he no longer just stared at those familiar figures but cast more of his gaze towards Zhou Yan.

"I never would have thought, I never would have thought."

"Even at this time, there would be an outsider from beyond the heavens arriving."